Absentee ballot

Information about Absentee ballot

Voting
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An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station. Numerous methods have been devised to facilitate this. Increasing the ease of access to absentee ballots are seen by many as one way to improve voter turnout, though some countries require that a valid reason, such as infirmity or travel, be given before a voter can participate in an absentee ballot.

Methods

Postal voting

In a postal vote, the ballot papers are posted out to the voter - usually only on request - who must then fill them out and return them, often with some form of certification by a witness and their signature to prove their identity.

Proxy voting

To cast a proxy vote, the user appoints someone as their proxy, by authorising them to cast or secure their vote in their stead. The proxy must be trusted by the voter, as in a secret ballot there is no way of verifying that they voted for the correct candidate. In an attempt to solve this, it is not uncommon for people to nominate an official of their chosen party as their proxy.

Internet voting

Corporations and organizations routinely use Internet voting to elect officers and Board members and for other proxy elections. Internet voting systems have been used privately in many modern nations and publicly in the United States, France[1], the UK, Switzerland and Estonia. In Switzerland, where it is already an established part of local referendums, voters get their passwords to access the ballot through the postal service. Most voters in Estonia can cast their vote in local and parliamentary elections, if they want to, via the Internet, as most of those on the electoral roll have access to an e-voting system. It has been assisted by the fact that most Estonians carry a national identity card equipped with a computer-readable microchip and it is these cards which they use to get access to the online ballot. All a voter needs is a computer, an electronic card reader, their ID card and its PIN, and they can vote from anywhere in the world. Estonian e-votes can only be cast during the days of advance voting. On election day itself people have to go to polling stations and fill in a paper ballot.

Absentee ballot examples

Germany

In all Germany elections, postal votes are available on demand. By law there has to be a good reason but there is not even the possibility to name one when applying for a postal vote.

Ireland

In Ireland, postal votes are only available in a restricted set of circumstances. The Irish constitution requires a secret ballot and the courts have interpreted this quite narrowly. Postal votes are available to people who by reason of their occupation, cannot vote normally. They are also available to students living away from home, to people with disabilities, to prisoners (since January 2007), and to long term residents of hospitals, nursing homes and other similar institutions.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, liberalised proxy voting is available. Voters can authorise someone else to cast their ballot without having to go through a registration procedure. Voters can cast a maximum of 2 proxy votes along with their own ballot. Postal ballots and Internet voting are only available to Dutch citizens living abroad, or having occupational duties abroad on election day.[2]

Switzerland

Postal voting is possible in federal and most canton elections.

United Kingdom

In all United Kingdom elections, postal votes are available on demand - no reason must be given - although a vote rigging scandal involving postal votes marred the 2005 Birmingham local election.[3]

United States

In the United States, an absentee ballot is a ballot that the voter records and casts other than at a designated polling station on Election Day. Typically these ballots are mailed, though some states provide provisions for emailing ballots, faxing ballots, or delivering them in person to a designated location. Typically a voter must request an absentee ballot at least a week before the election occurs. In the U.S., each State's Secretary of State or Director of Elections is in charge of the election process, including voter registration and absentee ballot requests. About half of all states and U.S. territories allow "no excuse absentee voting," where no reason is required to request an absentee ballot. In most states, voters may request "permanent absentee ballot" status, in which the state will send the voter an absentee ballot every time there is an election.

Voters (usually) mark their ballots, which may be an optically read ballot marked with a pen or pencil, or may be a punch card ballot. They then mail the ballot to the state, or may bring the ballot in person to a designated location.

Each state has different laws regulating when absentee ballots must be counted, and who does the counting. Most states count absentee ballots on Election Day which can continue for several days after. The latest deadline is 10 days after Election day (for Washington, D.C., and for overseas absentee ballots sent to Florida.)

Most other democratic nations also offer absentee ballots for their voters.

See also: Postal voting

Oregon

Unlike any other state, the ballot in Oregon is mailed to all residents, who are then supposed to fill out the ballot and either mail it back to the elections official or bring it to a drop box. The term "absentee ballot" in Oregon refers to mailing the ballot to the county elections official, and not merely to receiving the ballot in the mail. As with most states, Oregon residents must register in advance to be able to vote via absentee ballot.

California

California's Secretary of State has reported that in every general election since 1993, between 20% and 30% of ballots cast have been absentee ballots.

Texas

In 1997 the Texas legislature passed a bill allowing residents to cast absentee ballots from space, because of the presence of the NASA Johnson Space Center and the astronauts that live in the Houston metropolitan area.[4]

Maine

In the state of Maine, any voter may cast an absentee ballot and is not required to give a reason. They must fill out an application, available from the Secretary of State or their town clerk, and turn it in by hand or mail. They are then given or mailed a ballot, which must be returned to the town clerk by hand or by mail before the polls close on Election Day.

Absentee Ballot applications are available at http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/absent.htm. Ballots may be requested up to three months before an election. The ballots are available 30 to 45 days before an election. Maine voters can find their town at http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/clerk.htm.

Maryland

Any registered Maryland voter may vote by absentee ballot. Voters are not required to provide a reason for voting via absentee ballot.

To request an absentee ballot, complete the Absentee Ballot Application. To use this form, enter the required information, print the form, sign it, and send it to your County Board of Elections.

After the deadline, a Late Application for Absentee Ballot must be completed in person at the board of elections.

Under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, military and overseas voters can vote by absentee ballot. If you are a military or overseas voter, learn more about absentee voting and the FVAP's On-line Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot.

Ballots are typically mailed approximately three weeks before an election.

After ballot is received, vote the ballot and return it to your County Board of Elections on or before 8 p.m. on election day. A ballot received by the county board of elections will be counted provided:
  • It has been received by 8:00 p.m. on election day; or
  • It was mailed from a location within the United States before election day, bearing a postmark verifying that fact, and the ballot is received from the postal service by 4 p.m. on the Wednesday following election day; or
  • It was mailed from a location outside the United States before election day, bearing a postmark verifying that fact, and the ballot is received from the postal service by 10 a.m. on the second Friday following Election Day or 10 a.m. on the second Wednesday after a Gubernatorial Primary Election.

South Dakota

Any registered South Dakota voter may vote by absentee ballot. Absentee ballots are available for primary and general elections six weeks prior to the election. Absentee ballots for city and school elections are available several weeks prior to the election.

To receive a ballot by mail, a voter must file a written application for an absentee ballot with the person in charge of the election. The application must be mailed or hand delivered to the person in charge of the election. The application cannot be submitted by fax. The voter's signature on the application must be notarized or witnessed by an official who can administer an oath. An alternative to notarization would be to send a photocopy of a valid form of identification with the application. Notaries public are prohibited by law from charging a fee for notarizing an absentee ballot application.

The application can be filed anytime during the calendar year of the election. The application deadline is 3:00pm on election day.

Voters who qualify to vote absentee may also go to the office of the person in charge of the election, complete an application, and vote in the office. This should be done prior to election day.

In the event of confinement because of sickness or disability, a qualified voter may request an absentee ballot in writing, naming an authorized messenger who will deliver the ballot to the voter. An application for a ballot by authorized messenger must be received by the person in charge of the election before 3:00 p.m. the day of the election.

The voter must sign a statement on the absentee ballot envelope prior to returning the ballot. All voted ballots must be returned to the person in charge of the election in time to be delivered to the appropriate polling place prior to the closing of the polls.

References

See also

External links

Voting is a method of decision making wherein a group such as a meeting or an electorate attempts to gauge its opinion—usually as a final step following discussions or debates.

Voting is used in two different ways.
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Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious
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An election is a decision making process where people choose people to hold official offices. This is the usual mechanism by which modern democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government.
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For discussion of abstention of courts in a legal context, see .
Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does
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ballot is a device (originally a small ball - see blackball) used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but
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ballot box is a temporarily sealed container, usually cuboid though sometimes a tamper resistant bag, with a narrow slot in the top sufficient to accept a ballot paper in an election but which prevents anyone from accessing the votes cast until the close of the voting period.
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Ballot stuffing is the illegal act of one person submitting multiple ballots during a vote in which only one ballot per person is permitted. The name originates from the earliest days of this practice in which people literally did stuff more than one ballot in a ballot box at the
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Early voting, is the process which voters can cast their vote on a single or series of days prior to an election. Early voting can take place remotely, such as by mail, or in person, usually in designated early voting polling stations.
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Election Day Registration, also known as "same-day voter registration," permits eligible citizens to register and vote on Election Day. Election Day Registration significantly increases the opportunity for all citizens to cast a vote and participate in democracy.
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In party-list proportional representation systems, an election threshold is a clause that stipulates that a party must receive a minimum percentage of votes, either nationally or within a particular district, to get any seats in the parliament.
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An elector can be anyone who has a vote in an election:
  • The prince-electors of the "Holy Roman Empire of German Nation", were the highest college in the Imperial diet, of originally seven (eight since 1648, later more) Electors (often thus shortened; Kurfürsten

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None of the Above (NOTA) or against all is a ballot choice in some jurisdictions or organizations, placed so as to allow the voter to indicate his disapproval with all of the candidates in any voting system.
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The paradox of voting, also referred to as Downs paradox is a reference to the fact that for a rational, self-interested voter, the costs of voting will normally exceed the expected benefits. Because the chance of exercising a decisive vote (i.e.
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polling station or polling place (the latter usage being favored in the United States) is where voters cast their ballots in elections.

Since elections generally take place over a one- or two-day span on a periodic basis, often annual or longer, polling stations are
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Postal voting describes the method of voting in an election whereby ballot papers are distributed and/or returned by post to electors, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system.
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For the law enforcement usage, see police station.
A precinct is a space enclosed by the walls or other boundaries of a particular place or building, or by an arbitrary and imaginary line drawn around it. There are several different uses for the word.
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preference for a particular individual candidate on a party list by voting for him or her.

In the Netherlands, a country with an open list proportional representation system, this is quite common.
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A Protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the caster's unhappiness with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system. It can thus be said "conjectural," as the voter would accept others candidates in the same system, or "structural," if the
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A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there is some question in regards to a given voter's eligibility. A provisional ballot would be cast when:
  • The voter refuses to show a photo ID (in regions that require one)

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A refused ballot, or similar alternative, is a choice available to voters in many elections. This is an alternative for many people to casting a disparaging Spoiled ballot, which is not counted separately from ballots which have been accidentally destroyed.
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secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices are confidential. The key aim is to ensure the voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery.
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In voting, a ballot is considered to be spoilt, void, null or informal if it is regarded by the election authorities to be invalid and thus not included in the tally during vote counting. This may be done accidentally or deliberately.
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In voting systems, tactical voting (or strategic voting or sophisticated voting) occurs when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference in order to prevent an undesirable outcome.
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A tally (also see tally sticks) is an unofficial private observation of an election count carried out under Proportional Representation using the Single Transferable Vote.
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A ticket refers to a single election choice which fills more than one political office or seat. For example, in the U.S., the candidates for President and Vice President run on the same "ticket", because they are elected together on a single ballot question rather than separately.
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Ticket Splitters are those who vote for candidates from more than one political party when they vote for public offices, voting on the basis of individual personalities and records instead of on the basis of party loyalties.
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A vote center sometimes known as a super precinct is a polling place that combines multiple precincts allowing voters to choose at which location to vote. Voter centers can be used to allow voters to choose from any polling place within a larger jurisdiction, commonly
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Vote pairing (or vote swapping as it has also been called) is the method where a voter in one district agrees to vote tactically for a less-preferred candidate or party who has a greater chance of winning in their district, in exchange for a voter from another district voting
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In politics, voter fatigue is the apathy that the electorate can experience when they are required to vote too often.

It is often used as a criticism of the direct democracy system, in which voters are constantly asked to decide on policy via referendums.
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Voter registration is the requirement in some democracies for citizens to check in with some central registry before being allowed to vote in elections. An effort to get people to register is known as a voter registration drive.

Centralized/compulsory vs.


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